Danmaku Unlimited 2 [Doragon] - $4.99

If you aren’t an avid reader of our little review site here, or don’t know me from the Touch Arcade Forums, you might not know that I’m a HUGE Bullet-Hell fanatic. So with this in mind, it’s really no surprise that when Danmaku Unlimited 2 was announced last October, I just about crapped my pants in excitement. Now that it’s here, we get to see if we’ve hyped it up in our brains to the point where there’s no way it could compare with our hopes, or if it lives up to everything we hoped for and more. I’ll give you a hint; this review is going to be glowing. 

For those of you familiar with the original Danmaku Unlimited, DU2 not only adds some new scoring mechanics, but an entirely new mode all-together; Burst Mode. We’ll get into the scoring mechanics of Burst Mode in a sec, but first, Classic Mode. There have been some pretty big changes in the scoring for the Classic Mode in DU2. Right off the bat, you are able to graze bullets to help increase your score. However, here, grazing bullets does not effect your multiplier. Instead, it charges your Trance Meter and gives you a grazing bonus. While your Trance Meter does recharge on its own, slowly, grazing bullets and destroying enemies will speed this up quite a bit. Now, how do you raise your multiplier, you ask? Well, it’s a lot like DoDonPachi Maximum’s multiplier raising; you’ll need to collect gems dropped by enemies, however, the closer you are to an enemy, the more gems they’ll drop. So the closer you are to enemies when you destroy them, the more gems you’ll collect, and the higher your multiplier will go. Nifty, huh? We sure thought so! Once you enter Trance Mode, an initial blast will discharge converting all bullets on screen into multiplier gems. Also, all enemies and their bullets (once destroyed) will turn into precious gold stars that really bump up your score. 

Now, Burst Mode scoring. In Burst Mode, grazing is still on the menu as something that gives you a bonus and raises your Trance Meter. However, it does not raise your Trance Meter at the same rate that it does in the Classic Mode, here, it’s a bit slower. However, this is done for a very good reason. If you can pull this next move off right, your multiplier will SOAR. Burst Mode also utilizes the up-close-and-personal mechanics of Classic Mode, except here, while you’re up against enemies they will drop items that raise your Burst Gauge. Once your bar is about 20% full, you’ll be able to enable it and cancel out any bullets that the Burst Laser comes into contact with. The cancelled bullets, as well as destroyed enemies, turn into gems which, when collected, will raise your multiplier. Needless to say, you will be cancelling a LOT of bullets, especially on the harder difficulties. Another huge difference between Burst Mode and Classic Mode? In Burst Mode, entering Trance Mode will, get this, multiply your multiplier by 4X. That’s right. If you activate Trance Mode when your multiplier is at 100X, during Trance Mode your multiplier will hit 400X. This makes for some incredibly high scoring. 

As far as bullet patterns go, Danmaku Unlimited 2 has quite a few interesting combinations. Better yet, there’s a very good mix of bullets that are aimed directly at you and bullets that fly out in pre-determined patterns no matter where you are on-screen. The build up in the number of projectiles between difficulties is great, and with 4 difficulties, there’s definitely something for everyone no matter your skill set when it comes to SHMUPs. 

All of this sounds well and good and already stands out as a top notch bullet curtain title, but something that also makes it stand out above and beyond others? Kind of like the shop in the original Danmaku Unlimited, DU2 has an upgrade, experience and leveling system. That’s right, you’ll be earning experience in each game that you play that’s tacked on to your total experience and builds up your ships level. For each level that you achieve, you’re awarded points which you can use in the game’s shop. Here, you can change your shot type between focused, tracking and wide, with each shot type upgradeable to level 3. Even cooler; you can mix and match shot types. If you’re willing to dump points into shot types, you can even go into games with all 3 shot types active once you have enough points. Points can also be spent on bombs, lives and continues. Even better? Points are permanent. Once you earn them, you own them and can distribute them however you see fit. There are no IAPs, so purchasing points is not an option, meaning that players can’t just buy their way onto the leaderboards. Once you’re at the top level, you can mix and match and figure out what the best set-up is for what you’re trying to do during your run; going on a score-chasing run or trying to just complete the game. 

The controls are another huge plus. DU2 is free of all on-screen buttons. To do this, Doragon has made it so that entering Burst and Trance Modes, as well as switching from your regular shot type to the laser shot type, in Classic Mode, is all done by either swiping up (to enter Trance Mode) or down (to enter Burst Mode or change to your laser shot). You’re also able to customize the relative touch ratio from anywhere between 1:1 to 2:1, adjust the size of the gaming screen, change Trance Mode from auto to manual and on the iPhone, switch between normal and iPhone aspect ratios (in the iPhone aspect ratio, the screen will be able to scroll left and right instead of having everything smaller and centered). And yes, you can also adjust the music and sound effects separately. All-together, along with the game’s upgrade shop, this has made Danmaku Unlimited 2 a customizers paradise. 

Graphically, DU2 picks up where the original left off; exaggerated neon projectiles with huge ships and loads of items on the screen at almost all times. Your ships hit-box is very easy to see as the dot in the middle of your ship, even when things get insanely hectic. There have been some complaints that the Burst Mode orbs look very similar to the Track shot’s tracking missiles. Personally, I don’t see the issue with it, as your missiles go up towards the enemies and you never need to worry about collecting anything that’s going up. There’s also a few shades of color difference between the two, and doesn’t really distract from the game at all. But I thought it was worth bringing up since there are some people who are obviously having an issue with it. Hopefully Doragon can come up with an elegant solution for this; maybe making the Track shots missiles more missile like - long and straight - instead of tracking orbs. I don’t know. 

The background music is done by the same artist that did the music for Doragon’s previous bullet hell title, Storm Strikers, and fits the game beautifully. The mix of electronica and metal definitely adds to the intensity of the gameplay no matter what mode or difficulty you’re playing on. Animations also add quite a bit to the gameplay, with huge explosions and item movement all fitting together to create a visually intense gaming experience. All of it running at a smooth 60 frames per second too, which is very impressive. 

And, like any other SHMUP, DU2 wouldn’t be fully complete without GameCenter leaderboards. There are separate boards for each mode and each difficulty, as well as boards for your total combined scores for all difficulties in both Classic and Burst Modes. On top of that, there’s also leaderboards for the Boss Rush Classic and Boss Rush Burst Modes that are unlocked once you complete the game. There are also 30 achievements to snag, all adding to the already crazy high replay value. 

All of this is put together in a Universal and iPhone/iPod 5 widescreen supported package priced at $4.99. Considering the price of similar games (I’m looking at you Cave) it’s a real steal. Doragon has definitely cemented their place in the iOS bullet hell genre and hopefully we’ll be able to see more from this incredibly talented one-man development studio in the future. If you’re a fan of the genre, Danmaku Unlimited 2 is a must own. I really can’t recommend it enough, and if this glowing review isn’t enough to win you over, you can check out the lite version of the game which contains the first level in both of the game’s amazing modes. You’ll also have access to the game’s upgrade and shop system, which is a pretty cool thing to get acquainted with if you’re still on the edge of deciding whether or not to throw down the $5 for the full version. 

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Aeon Avenger [Kemco + World Wide Software] - $8.99

A couple weeks ago one of our favorite Turn-Based RPG publishers, Kemco, released a new title in the English AppStore. Ever since we got our hands on Symphony Of Eternity, we’ve been hooked on Kemco’s releases, and even though they all look like very well made retro-RPG games done  with something like RPG Maker, there’s no way we can overlook the crazy amount of work, effort and love thrown into each and every title that Kemco has published. This time, WorldWide Software has brought us the awesome Chrono Trigger-esque title, Aeon Avenger. 

Aeon Avenger follows the story of Lake, a young, jobless slacker type who’s more obsessed with gunism than anything else. At the beginning of the game, Lake’s entire town, as well as his family, is killed by a mysterious man in black. This drives Lake to seek revenge. As his journey becomes more and more ‘complicated’ (as Lake likes to say), a woman named Rean who has the power to travel through time joins him in a quest to stop the man in black by going into the past and changing the sequence of events that led to the destruction of Lake’s village. Other party members also join up for short periods of time helping Lake and Rean figure out a way to stop the man in black from ever possessing the power to control monsters by going back in time and finding out how the monsters are able to be controlled. Toss in some Gods, a secret War and quite a bit of time travel in order to progress through certain areas of the story, and it does get a little ‘complicated’. 

Probably the biggest thing that fans of Kemco, and RPG gamers in general, are wondering about is the game’s equipment, leveling up and battle mechanics, as these are different in each and every one of Kemco’s titles (minus Alphadia and Alphadia 2). First off, there are 8 different weapons (Gun, Rod, Bow, Knuckles, Sword, Staff, Flail and a Whip) that you can choose from and each character, though proficient in one weapon, is able to equip them all. You can also equip clothing/armor with some able to be equipped with every character, while others are only for male or female characters. Along with your weapon and armor, you’re also able to equip two accessories. These range from slight perks, like a bump in stats, HP or MP, to preventing the wearer from suffering from various magical effects like confusion, sleep, poison and more. Now, most likely the biggest thing you’ll be worried about are bits. Bits are gems which you can attach to weapons adding on special perks, stats, spells and attacks. This is how your character uses skills and spells. Each weapon has a certain number of bit slots which you can equip bits into. These bits can also evolve, which we’ll talk about in a second, but how many slots a bit takes up is dependant on it’s strength. Unfortunately, you are not able to learn spells or skills, which means that you will not be able to use things like ‘Heal’ unless you have the bit that allows for the healing spell equipped on your current weapon. Because of this, switching out bits and finding out which ones are best against what monsters and bosses will be something you’ll be doing fairly often. This isn’t so much of a hassle, as in most weapon shops, there’s usually another NPC that will let you know what weapons are best for the monsters that can be found in the next dungeon area. 

Another mechanic that’s definitely worth bringing up is the time travel aspect of the game. A lot like Chrono Trigger, Aeon Avenger will have you traveling from the present back to the past and into the future, all to learn more about the world around you, solve puzzles, open areas and generally just progress through the story. One of the features that takes advantage of the time traveling mechanic, making it more than just a nifty part of the story and progression, is that you can evolve bits by placing them in a special area in the past, along with a magic evolution stone, and then traveling to the future to retrieve and equip them. Not all bits can be evolved, but most of the ones that can will play a huge roll in how you battle enemies. 

Graphically, Aeon Avenger looks like your typical retro RPG that Kemco has become known for publishing. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, unless you’re just sick to death of the style. Growing up exposed to the NES, SNES and SEGA, I personally love ‘retro’ graphics. Also, after spending hours upon hours messing around with RPG Maker, I have a newfound respect for how much work actually does go into the making of an RPG, even when given pre-rendered assets (which I’m not saying is what has been done here, as far as I know, World Wide Software placed every single pixel within the game themselves), it’s one hell of a task to take on. Along with the retro graphics, the animations are smooth, and the BGM adds to the retro feeling of the game as well. 

The user interface is reminiscent of Eve of the Genesis, which is no surprise considering EotG was developed by WWS as well. You’re given a menu button in the top left of the gameplay screen which will take you to a menu where you can access your tools (inventory), skills, status (equipment), map, help, settings, title, save and guide. All of the interaction with the menus is pretty straight-forward. It’s not cluttered, and is very easy to navigate. In the settings menu, you’re able to adjust the sound, battle rendering speed, movement speed, text speed, turn the mini map on or off and adjust the virtual control settings. You aren’t able to move the controls anywhere on the screen, but you are able to move them from the bottom corners to the middle of the screen. 

Now, not only are we incredibly excited that we have another Kemco title to add to our collection, but also, this is the first Kemco title that has been released as a Universal app. That’s right, no more 2X mode on the iPad! Along with being Universal, Aeon Avenger also supports the iPhone 5’s widescreen (even though it is not stated as optimized for the iPhone 5 in the game‘s description on iTunes). Priced at $8.99, it’s another great Final Fantasy-esque retro Turn-Based RPG at a fraction of the price of Square’s FF titles. If you’re a fan of the genre, Kemco’s releases are definitely worth checking out and we can’t wait until their next publication hits the AppStore. 

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Doragon Entertainment's Danmaku Unlimited 2 Is Released! - DU1 and Storm Strikers On Sale!

Because of the nature of the AppStore and how many crazy good releases there are every single year, it's no surprise that loads of great games never hit our radars before release. However, there are a select few that we find out about months beforehand and are psyched about for months. Doragon's Danmaku Unlmited 2 falls into the second category. 

We found out about DU2 last October, and since, we've been drooling at the thought of playing a third bullet hell shooter from one incredibly talented developer. Now, the time has come and Danmaku Unlimited 2 is available for purchase in the AppStore. 

Having been on the beta team, I can definitely say that, without a doubt, Danmaku Unlimited 2 will appeal to fans of the shmup/bullet-hell genre. The crazy Japanese styling, great color pallet, over the top visuals, 4 difficulties, 2 gameplay modes dependent on grazing bullets, up-close destruction, bullet canceling and special Trance Mode 4X multiplier sessions alongside the customizable upgrades (including being able to mix shot types [focused, wide and tracking] together) controls and screen size - not to mention the game being Universal, supporting the iPhone/iPod 5's widescreen and looking beautiful while running at 60 frames per second all comes together creating one of the best bullet-hell experiences available on the iDevice. Yes, even when including Cave's tried and true mastery of the genre. 

Also, if you've yet to experience Doragon's two previous bullet-hell shooters, Danmaku Unlimited and Storm Strikers, they are both on sale right now for $0.99 each. You can also pick up lite version of all 3 titles;

Danmaku Unlimited Lite

Storm Strikers Lite

Danmaku Unlimited 2 Lite

Make sure you DO NOT miss out on this game. Even if you don't consider yourself a bullet-hell gamer, with the 4 difficulty modes, there's plenty of great gameplay to be had by even the most casual of players. You can expect a review for DU2 ASAP... but until then, take a look at these awesome pics and screen melting trailer;

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Sporos [AppXplore] - $0.99

Last year, Bulkypix published quite a few really really good games. Many of which, I still have on both  my iPad and my iPhone. One of these titles was AppXplore’s Lightopus (if you don’t have it yet, you should definitely check it out). Since then, AppXplore has been had at work creating their most recent release, Sporos, a puzzler with a crazy amount of content, and this time, has decided to publish it on their own.

Now, puzzlers on the iOS are kind of hit a miss. There’s more than a few out there that are just way too while others can be frustratingly hard, and the amount of content can be minimal to overwhelming. Basically, there’s very few that really just hit the nail on the head in terms of difficulty and content. Sporos, even though there’s a whopping 500 levels, is one of the later. Levels can be solved fairly quickly in the beginning, but once you get into it, do take some thought, as well as experimentation, in order to solve. The added 3 star system helps to push gamers, but because you can take all the time you need solving a stage and then restart it and 3 star it in about 3 seconds does kind of take away from the drive to get it right the first time through. Having a special ‘first timers’ medal or something for those of us who are lucky enough to be able to 3 star stages on our first time through would have been a fantastic addition, but the lack of it kind of makes it feel like every other 3 star system puzzle game out there in that regard (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just something that quite a few gamers would like to see built upon every now and again). 

The goal of the game is to fill up a pattern of empty cells by using seeds known as sporos. These sporos are able to branch out and fill up cells based on the patterns that are imprinted on them. For instance, having a seed that has two horizontal lines found on it will fill up empty cells in a straight line to the left and right of wherever you place the seed. In each stage, you’re given a few seeds and will need to fill every empty cell with the bits that branch out of them. The quicker you do this, as well as how many times you move a seed, will result in your final star rating for the level. But as already stated, you can take all the time you need figuring out where to place the seeds, and then restart the stage and complete it earning you 3 stars in about 3 seconds. 

That’s not to say that it’s not a difficult game by any means. With the breaks in the pattern and seed branches able to jump across empty spaces, actually figuring out how to intertwine the seeds and their branches will take some thought, and is not something that can be figured out right off the bat just by glancing at a pattern and available seeds. There will be times when picking up a seed and moving it around the pattern, seeing what empty cells light up and would get blocked off before deciding what seeds to place where and when (as a seed can not be placed on top of another seeds branch) will become something that most players will wind up doing at the start of almost every stage. 

The stages are broken up into two different modes; Essential Labs and Experimental Labs. Essential Labs mode is like your typical puzzler, where levels start off easy, and grow increasingly difficult as you progress through the game. Experimental Labs can be a bit more tricky. In the Experimental levels, you’ll find cells with arrows in them. These cells act as extenders for the seeds branches. Once a branch hits the cell with an arrow, it will carry on in the direction that the arrow is pointing. What makes this more tricky is that the extentions caused by these special arrow cells are not highlighted when deciding where to place your seeds, so they do take a bit more thought (and experimentation) to figure out. 

Graphically, Sporos looks, and feels, a lot like AppXplore’s previous title, Lightopus. The neon colors and unit models look like they could have been pulled straight from Lightopus. This isn’t really a bad thing, especially if you enjoyed the look and feel of their previous title, and it also fits within the puzzle genre very well. Animations aren’t really too important in a game like this, but they’re very fitting, and compliment the gameplay. The background music is light and also fits the look and helps add to the feeling of the game. 

Sporos is Universal, has widescreen support for the iPhone/iPod 5, and includes GameCenter support with 19 achievements. There are no leaderboards and no stats to explore like total time played, total moves, ect, but that doesn’t really take much away from the game. iCloud support would have been a great plus, especially since Sporos is a Universal app. There is an IAP included, but this is for hints just in case you get stuck. You are given 3 hints to start with and a pack of 30 hints will cost you $0.99, but is definitely not required to complete the game. With Sporos priced at $0.99, it’s a great addition to the puzzle genre, even though some little extra touches here and there would have made it stand out more, it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re a puzzler fan. AppXplore has also said that more levels are set to come in future updates, so there should be plenty of content now, and in the future. There is also a free version that you can try out before deciding if you want to purchase the full, which is always a plus. 

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Rock Runners [Chillingo + Recoil Games] - $0.99

I will definitely admit that Chillingo titles have been going downhill for quite some time. It really seems like they have no screening process what-so-ever when it comes to choosing what games from what developers they’re going to publish. Because of this, bugs never get fixed and ‘Coming Soon’ content never arrives. It also hasn’t helped that they’ve dropped almost every single title down to free within the same month of it’s release. But, and yes, there is a but here, they are picking up steam again. Over the last 3 or 4 months, Chillingo titles have been getting bug fixing updates as well as promised content. They are also not dropping every title down to free a week or two after release. It does give us hope that they’re trying to earn back some of that reputation that faltered over the last year and a half or so. Because of this, one of their newest releases, Rock Runners, hit our devices this week, and it is one hell of a great game. 

Now, we’ve been saying for a while that auto-running platformers and endless runners are starting to come back onto the more popular side of iOS gaming genres because they’re growing and expanding again. Not every new title falls into this category, but quite a few do. This is another one of the main reasons why Rock Runners caught our eye. But once we got into it and realized that it doesn’t add anything new to the genre. We were also reminded that a game doesn’t need to bring something new to the table to completely hook us. While Rock Runners doesn’t really focus on originality, everything else it focuses on is done to perfection. The graphics, animations, sounds, physics, level design, gameplay mechanics, upgrades and everything else within the game is amazingly well polished. So much so that while it’s not necessarily original, it does stand out as one of the best auto-running platformers we’ve had the pleasure of playing on the iOS. 

Rock Runner’s one gameplay mode contains 4 different worlds with over 140 stages. Like most mobile games, there are 3 possible objectives for each stage. Every stage has two objectives that are always the same; Reach the Goal and Beat X:XX (Time Limit). Other than those two, you’ll be faced with collecting a certain percentage of gems; 90%, 95% and sometimes even 100%, Avoid the Purple Goo, Avoid Damage, Do Not Stumble and Avoid Drills. Along with these objectives, there will be a set path of levels that will make up your World Time. Here, you can better your times in these stages and compete on any of the 4  GameCenter leaderboards that each world has. There are also 52 achievements you can try and unlock, though most of them are accessible just by playing through and completing the game, so there’s not much replay value added in with them. Not to say that there’s not already tons of replay value here with the objectives, times and star system.  

The gameplay is incredibly solid. Not only are you able to tap to jump, with the jump length and height depending on how long you hold your finger down, you’re also able to swing with a grapple, which is also done by holding on the screen whenever you’re in range of a hook, and use portals to either go back and collect missed gems, keys that unlock levels throughout the game, bigger gems, or reach higher up platforms. Also, you’re given a boost bar at the top of the screen that fills up when you collect gems. Once you collect enough gems, you’ll boost until you either run into an object or complete the level. Not only do gems result in giving you a boost and quicker level completion times, but once you fill up your boost gauge, you’ll also activate your gem multiplier. 

Your gem multiplier, as well as other special items and characters, can be upgraded and bought in the game’s shop. Here, you’ll be able to increase your gem multiplier from 2X upto 3X, 4X and finally, 5X, activate and upgrade a gem magnet, shield and booster. Each time you upgrade these power-ups, you’ll also unlock another slot to store said power-up. Once you run out, you’ll need to recharge the slots so that you can use the powers again. I will admit that this does sound a bit expensive, but with the gem multiplier upgrade and the sheer amount of gems included in every level (anywhere from 600 [in the beginning of the game] to 3,000 towards the end), you’ll be able to upgrade and purchase items at a fairly quick pace. Also, recharging of the power-ups is very cheap (between 250 and 375 depending on how many slots you have available). Extra characters do not come with additional stats or powers, and are purely cosmetic, but do cost quite a bit (20,000 gems for each of the two characters). 

The graphics, animations and the amount of polish and charm that’s oozing out of the game is outstanding. The environments do not change much, and the level design for each world is basically a ton of little bits and sections that are just swapped out and mixed up with each other (though each world does introduce it’s own set of sections), but with the gameplay that’s so incredibly solid and just plain fun, it’s hard to care that much. The BGM does help set a cheerful and energetic mood, matching the lavish color palate and bright visuals. 

With Rock Runners being Universal and with hours upon hours of gameplay, especially if you get into some time battles on the GC leaderboards, the price of $0.99 is a steal. Chillingo has done a great job of trying to turn their studio around, and with Rock Runners having a possible 5th world in the works, we definitely hope that Recoil Games keeps working on this great runner and we do actually get the promised content. But even without it, at the cheap price, Rock Runners is a must own if you’re a fan of the auto-running platformer genre. If nothing else, we definitely hope that Recoil sticks with iOS video game development, because we’d love to see more titles from them hit the AppStore over the next couple years. 

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Doing Away With Star Ratings

It's no secret that The App Shack is a very small review site. At the moment, our 'staff' is made up of me (Syntheticvoid) and Alister. Our 20,000 hits a month is nothing compared to sites like Touch Arcade, 148 Apps, AppSpy, Slide To Play, ect... Don't get me wrong, I feel very fortunate that we do get as much traffic as we do, and I'm actually pretty glad that we aren't a big review site.

Because of this, we're able to pretty much do whatever the hell we want to in regards to everything. We're able to not worry about charging developers for adspace or reviews, we don't have to cover all the top stories and rumors that other sites obsess about, and we can (luckily) write reviews at our own pace, and for whatever games we want.

Now, after a LOT of mulling it over and thinking, we've decided to do away with our star rating system. This is mainly because we generally only review games that we feel deserve more attention. This is all because we have real jobs, lives, families, ect... and can't sink hours upon hours into this site, no matter how badly we want to. It would be great to be able to review every single game that's released every week, but we just don't have the time, so games that catch our eyes are basically the only games we review. Because of this, almost every single game gets a 4 or 5 star rating, making star ratings pretty pointless here at TAS.

So, from now on, we will keep bringing you reviews, but they will not be rated. We will keep our previous scores up because back when we actually had a staff working on reviews, we were able to review not only games that we enjoyed, but also games that we didn't.

WE hope you'll keep sticking with us through this sort of 'dead time' for our site. And if you, or anyone you know is interested in joining up and writing reviews for The App Shack, feel free to contact (or have them contact) us @ TheAppShack@live.com

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Review Rewind: Bean's Quest

Back in 2011, a then unknown development team, Kumobious, hit the scene with their breakthrough title, Bean's Quest. Though, at the time, there were very few people willing to take a chance on it. See - Bean's Quest launched at the price of $2.99 and only contained 8 levels. But those who did take a chance were completely blown away by the production values, controls, physics, animations, graphics, pretty much everything about the game was incredibly impressive. But Kumobious stated that they were going to release more levels through updates. This was also a pretty big turn off for a lot of people because, as many of us have come to experience, games that don't release with all of the planned content very rarely see any sort of content in the future. But over the next year, content updates came and shot Bean's Quest up pretty much every single platformer lovers favorites list, finally ending up with 50 stages and 150 hardcore challenges to try and complete. Needless to say, we're incredibly happy about how Bean's Quest turned out, and chances are, this game will never leave our devices. If you have yet to pick up this gem of a game, missed out on it, or just recently got an iDevice and simply weren't around when Bean's Quest was more well-known, you should definitely pick this one up. 

**Note - This Review was written by Peter Toms after playing Version 3.0.1**

In 'Bean's Quest', a delightful platformer by Kumobius, you play as Emilio, who has been transformed into a Mexican Jumping Bean and his girlfriend and pets taken away by a dark wizard. The game was originally released in mid-July with just eight levels, but has since been continuously updated by the developers to now include fifty levels. The latest update added 23 new levels and finished the story. Bean's Quest mixes around between traditional platforming elements and a truly unique and creative execution.

Gameplay/Controls: 4.5/5

The controls are very simple in 'Bean's Quest': touch the left side of the screen to move left and the right side to go right. This is combined with the fact that you are constantly jumping, so you have to time your movements accordingly. The controls work flawlessly, though for those heavily accustomed to normal platformers, the jumping mechanic will take time to get used to. The gameplay and controls work perfectly together in creating a truly unique experience. Different gameplay elements, like enemies, giant wheel-like objects, and tiny blocks help you along the way, even causing some levels to feel like a mix between physics puzzlers and platformers. 'Bean's Quest' is a very fun and enjoyable game, bringing wildly new elements to a somewhat-standardized genre.

Graphics/Music: 4.5/5

 The graphics feel very fitting as well, with a nifty semi-pixelized look. It feels like the perfect blend between retro and modernized graphics. The game looks how you'd want it to by playing it: retro streaked with a cool, new-age flair to it. Different worlds have different looks, giving a nice change-of-pace between them.  The music feels as great as I could imagine, with a chiptune-like soundtrack mixed with the Spanish flair fitting of a Mexican Jumping Bean. Each world also has a separate music number. As a whole, 'Bean's Quest' presents itself in a method pleasing to both the eyes and ears.

Content/Variety: 5/5

 If I were reviewing this game before any updates, the game would definitely be lacking in this category. But thanks to major updates, it's grown in size to become a powerhouse in terms of content. Each level has three very difficult goals: collect all the gems, find your pet Axolotl, and try to do it within the par jump, bouncing as few times as possible. Each of these will take you several tries to achieve, adding a lot of replay value to the mix. Plus there are Game Center Leaderboards for each world as well as 33 achievements to collect. To complete the game alone will take awhile, but to accomplish all three goals for every level will last you a long time in terms of playing time. There's also a lot of variety, with five definedly different worlds and an epic boss battle finale. Worlds feel a lot different too, with different enemies, obstacles, and more in each world. As far as content and variety goes, 'Bean's Quest' brings you a lot of both, giving a game one could play for hours and not get bored with.

Overall: 4.5/5

 Grab your sombrero and start jumping, because this platformer is definitely one of the most creative takes on virtual controls. Hop to it and buy this wonderful gem.

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Kemco + WorldWideSoftware's Aeon Avenger Hits The AppStore!

Kemco, one of our personal favorite iOS RPG Publishers, has just released their English version of Aeon Avenger. For those of you who do not have access to an Android device, and have not heard of Aeon Avenger yet, here's some info on the game;

A young man named Lake lost both his home and family when a mysterious man in black attacked his village. Revenge became his one purpose in life. One day, he met a woman from a tribe which kept the secrets of time travel. His destiny was about to change forever... Who is the Man in Black, who leads a host of monsters? A great story, spanning 3 eras, present, past and future!

Seems you're able to travel through time, as well as solve problems and puzzles in one era by traveling to another (reminiscent of Chrono Trigger). Weapons can be strengthened by using accessories called 'Bits' which can also be evolved as you progress throughout the game. And as always, there's a full cast of characters with some fantastic English translation done by Kemco.

Aeon Avenger also supports the iPhone 5's widescreen (even though this is not stated in the iTunes requirements - this has been tested and confirmed) and is the very first Kemco title to be UNIVERSAL! That's right, no more 2X mode for iPad owners!

You can snag Aeon Avenger on sale for launch priced at $2.99 - it will go up to $8.99 soon, so grab it ASAP!

As always, we will have a detailed review for the game up as soon as we can. Until then, check out some screens and the trailer! 

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